SuDSlab: A Living Lab for Sustainable Drainage
Our SuDSlab brings together on-campus and community surface water management measures in one monitoring and evaluation system
Project summary
The Challenge
Understanding better how Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) perform in the real-world.
The Approach
Using remote sensors to collect long term, real-time data to monitor and analyse how SuDS work, both on campus and in the wider community.
The Outcome
Helping to increase knowledge, widen acceptance and encourage deployment of SuDS. Raising community awareness of flood risk.
Institutes and centres
Lead academics
Project funded by
Project Partners
We are working with a range of partners detailed in the individual projects below
The Challenge
An introduction to the SuDSlab at the University of Hull
2 mins
Most days we give little thought to water in our urban environments. Yet only by managing surface water effectively can we avoid the devastation of widespread flooding when drainage systems are overwhelmed by heavy rainfall. In this way, SuDS have a vital role to play in helping society adapt to the consequences of climate change which is expected to bring more frequent heavy rainstorm events
SuDSlab is an initiative of the University of Hull to evaluate the effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and through engagement with communities, risk management authorities and other partners to better utilise them. SuDSlab is formed of sub-projects such as Blue-Green Lab, DIG and our partnership with Living With Water, each of which help contribute to our main challenges.
SuDSlab has over 300 sensors measuring hydrometric data
Our main challenges are to:
- Understand better how SuDS can be made more efficient at slowing and filtering surface water
- Optimise SuDS for different rainfall conditions and maximise their benefit for the wider catchment
- Encourage awareness of how water can be managed sustainably in our towns and cities
- Educate people about water management and sustainability
- Provide examples that demonstrate how citizens and developers can manage water sustainably.
The full research team
Dr Stuart McLelland
Deputy Director of the Energy and Environment Institute
Dr Ed Brookes
Research Fellow - Water Data for the People
Dr Giles Davidson
Head of EEI Strategic Projects
Dr Hannah Worthen
Postdoctoral Research Associate
The Approach
In 2020, we recognised the need to better understand the hydrological processes within SuDS in order to evaluate and improve performance across a catchment. To this end, we established the SuDSlab UK network. The map below shows the locations of the SuDS we are currently monitoring and the data we are collecting from across all our associated projects.
IData from our sensor network will soon be available to download directly from SuDSlab with an easy to operate dashboard, giving insight into how SuDS respond in real-time. If you are operating other SuDS sensor monitoring programmes and wish it to be added to our map, please contact the project team.
The Impact
SuDSlab measures its impact in Research; Innovation and Demonstration; and Education and Awareness.
Research
We continue our research into SuDS, with engagement at conferences and through the community. We are also pleased to have received a Highly Commended award in catchment-based solutions by susdrain in 2022 for our work into research in this area.
Innovation and Demonstration
We have developed a blueprint from which others can follow to monitor SuDS. By innovating in this space and through demonstration to a range of interested parties we can share the project's learnings with a wider audience. In collaboration with the DIG Project, we have appointed a full-time dedicated Knowledge Exchange Fellow in Floods and SuDS.
Education and Awareness
SuDSlab supports a wide range of education provision. We incorporate new learning opportunities about sustainable drainage into our own undergraduate and postgraduate programmes such as our MSc in Flood Risk Management.
We also use SuDSlab as a community learning tool to raise awareness of flood risk and sustainable drainage within our local region. All data is accessible through our website: sudslab.co.uk
If you would like to arrange a tour of the University of Hull campus SuDS, please email Dr Ed Brookes or Dr Hannah Worthen.
The SuDSlab project is demonstrating ways to create more space for accessible nature in our urban environments, whilst capturing meaningful evidence for decision makers to replicate these changes elsewhere.Matthew Millington
Local Nature Partnership Development Officer, East Riding of Yorkshire Council
Next steps
We are exploring partnerships that will enable the expansion of the SuDSlab UK network throughout the UK. This will enable real-time monitoring of SuDS in a wide variety of real-world settings, providing valuable data to assess the capabilities of these important tools for climate change adaptation.
DIG Project
We are working in partnership with the Doncaster, Immingham and Grimsby surface water resilience project
Related projects
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